Welcome to the neighborhood, Papaya King!

Coming very soon to St. Mark's Place near Third Avenue... where the plywood came down last week...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Papaya King coming to St. Mark's Place

Papaya King coming to St. Mark's Place

[Last week]

We've been waiting to see what would emerge from behind the plywood at 3 St. Mark's Place just east of Third Avenue... where the gem-jewelry store moved next door...

Signs went up this week — Papaya King...



Per the Papaya King website:

Papaya King is the original. Accept no imitations. Since 1932, we have been serving our special recipe, one-of-a-kind franks and tropical drinks to New Yorkers and visitors of all ages and from all walks of life at our original 86th Street location. We have a passion for freshness, quality, flavor & fun. We cook your franks while facing you so that we can see each other’s smiles (and because it’s rude to have you stare at our backs).

Here's Ralph Gardner Jr. talking about them a few years back at The Wall Street Journal:

I almost feel foolish describing Papaya King and its franks, so familiar I assume it is to just about anybody who has landed in New York more than 15 minutes ago. But for the record, it serves an arguably unimprovable hot dog. Slightly spicy and garlicky, its casing explodes in your mouth to release its mouth-watering contents.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Early this morning on St. Mark's Place]

CBGB Film Festival shopping at SXSW (Billboard)

A visit to Fabulous Fanny's on East Ninth Street (The Wall Street Journal)

More drama for Finale at 199 Bowery (BoweryBoogie)

Highlights from last night's CB3/SLA meeting (The Lo-Down)

Peacefood Cafe opens outpost on East 11th Street and University (DNAinfo)

Casa Havana disappears on 8th Avenue (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Lawsuit at Hotel Chelsea (Curbed)

And if you have 10 minutes to spare... Joe Franklin interviews Joey and Marky Ramone in 1988...

St. Mark's Place is dead! Long live St. Mark's Place!

[Window Shade Repairman, St. Marks Place, New York, 1938, by Joe Schwartz. Via Stephen Cohen Gallery]

Ada Calhoun is a freelance journalist working on a narrative history of St. Mark's Place. Last September, Calhoun sold the book, titled "St. Marks Is Dead," to W.W. Norton. Calhoun has her own narrative history of St. Mark's — she was born and raised on the block between Second Avenue and First Avenue in the mid-1970s and 1980s.

The book is due at the publisher next spring, and she is looking for some help.

Per the Facebook events page:

My goal is to track down the best stories, photographs, and historical documents related to the street. I've been going through archives and conducting a few interviews a week, but I know I'm only scratching the surface. In the interest of efficiency, I'd like to invite anyone with St. Marks-related stories or pictures to share to drop by the lovely Neighborhood Preservation Center on March 10th, anytime between 12 and 4, for a St. Marks Place story-gathering event.

ST MARKS STORY DAY
Sunday, March 10 from 12-4
Neighborhood Preservation Center
232 East 11th Street, Buzzer #1
(Near St. Mark's Church)
Snacks provided!

I recently spoke with Calhoun about the book, and what it was like growing up on the block.

"I didn't know any different. I thought it was totally normal. I was used to stepping over bodies walking down the street or being offered drugs every five steps," she said. "I did have this experience when I went to visit cousins in Ohio when I was 11 years old. They had a kiddie pool in the backyard and we went to a drive-in movie theater. And we got root beer floats, which I never had before. I came back fuming at my parents. I was like, What the fuck — you never told me any of this! I felt totally deprived!"

The book will explore the history (going back to the 17th century) and mythology of the street. So far she has talked with more than 100 people about the block and its meaning to them.

Any common themes emerging so far?

"The thing that I kept running into [were] people saying that there was this golden moment on the street when St Mark's was really itself and reached its full promise on this date and for these five years there was no better place in the entire world. It was the heart of culture — the center for music, art and poetry," she said. "People would describe passionately how it was so vibrant and they were so alive, then it died this horrible death."

For instance, Jack Kerouac biographer Joyce Johnson said that St. Mark's was all over in 1974 when someone flipped a cigarette into her son's stroller.

Another person Calhoun interviewed said that the scene died in 1974. Someone else said that all started in 1974. She also heard that the block reached its peak in 1978. Not to mention 1980. And so on.

"I'm really curious what's going on now. Basically my theory right now, based on doing this book, is that everyone was wrong. Everyone who thought it was dead was wrong," she said. "So people who think it's dead now are probably wrong too. My theory is that people coming out of karaoke bars or yogurt shops ... this is going to be some new wave of culture that we don't know about and won't even know about until it's over."

[St. Mark's Place on 2009, via the EVG files]

Reader report: Will a rent hike force out East Village Shoe Repair on St. Mark's Place?

[Via StyleBubble UK]

A tipster passes along word that the cobblers at East Village Shoe Repair on St. Mark's Place may be forced to close or relocate after the landlord hit them with a big rent hike. While nothing is final just yet, they are apparently not very optimistic. (This article from 2006 noted that their rent was $4,000 a month for the 100-square-feet of space.)

A cobbler has been in this space since 1985; Belarus natives Eugene Finkelberg and Boris Zuborev took over in 1994. (Finkelberg is the original owner's nephew.) Aside from quality repair work, the two are well-known for their custom shoe creations... the spot to get the EV creepers.


[Via StyleBubble UK]

A post from April 2010 on Style Bubble notes:

" ...characters like Boris and Eugene are diminishing in cities... that encounters in grimy holes where they gesture to their faded albums with shoe polish fingers are few and far between... I maybe over-romanticising but I did feel ever so slightly enrichened by a visit to this particular shoe repair joint..."

Not sure what kind of tenant the landlord is aiming for in such a small space ... Of course, as previously noted, with 51 Astor Place and its 12-floors of incoming office workers looming in the background ... I wonder about the future of the remaining hole-in-the-wall-type shops along the block...



Bonus Barney.

[Photo by Bob Arihood from 2010]

For further reading:
EV Creepers (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Today's sign of the Apocalypse: 7-Eleven on St. Mark's Place now delivering

Not sure how long that sign has been up... didn't notice it earlier in the week... did not see a delivery sign on the 7-Eleven Bowery location... And what would you have delivered from a 7-Eleven?

Sidewalk stories

Yesterday, a little sidewalk work commenced on St. Mark's Place...

Today, the final product.

Much better!

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Village Joker signage appears at The Burger Shop on St. Mark's Place

And on St. Mark's Place, a new sign has appeared above the 14-month old Burger Shop ...

The Village Joker. Sounds like the, say, 6th stop on a pub crawl.

No one was around to ask about the name change. The Burger Shop sign remains...

'ALL uses considered' for these two retail spaces on St. Mark's Place

For lease signs arrived for two empty storefronts on St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue... most recently Baoguette Cafe and Timi's Gelateria Classica™ ...

The listings haven't appeared just yet on the Walter & Samuels website...

We're assuming the spaces are destined for some kind of chain or dessert or specialty food shop (like a place that specializes in, say, snail caviar). Or maybe our dream of a shop for buying and trading used cassettes will finally be realized...

[Updated] Longtime favorite Natori closing for good Friday on St. Mark's Place

[Photo via The Village Voice]

Sad news via the EVG tipline... a reader passes along word that Natori, the hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant at 58 St. Mark's Place, will close on Friday night. The tipster understands that the owner has to return to Japan for family reasons. A Natori employee confirmed the closing as well.

Hirokazu Takaya opened Natori here in the late 1980s ... among other reasons, the place was well-known for its generous early-bird specials. Last year, The Voice named it as a "Best of" in the Japanese — Sushi category.

Updated:
Back on Nov. 26, a worker confirmed that Natori was closing. However, Natori remains open for now ... we'll see if we can get an update on what's happening here. Anyway, good news for now...

Here's a blackout-friendly apartment with a fireplace on St. Mark's Place

Seems appealing at the moment — fireplace and all ... though this "junior" one bedroom at 42 St. Mark's Place is going for $2,850. Per the listing:

This classic NY apartment on St. Marks Place has several exposed brick walls with a wood burning fireplace. It provides outstanding light, 11 foot ceilings and an open layout. Your bathroom has been renovated in a clean and contemporary style while the loft style bedroom offers you the best night sleep.

There's an open house tonight from 6-7. Bring a log. Stay awhile.

Explanation for this splop on St. Mark's Place this morning

What have we here?

Probably a perfectly reasonable explanation... and just up ahead... incriminating evidence.

Ah, thought there was a scent of hickory smoke in the morning air.

GRAND OPENING WINE AND LIQUOR ALERT

@robbyohara notes that the new St. Marks Wine and Liquor is now open at 16 St. Mark's Place. Have any of you been yet? Any early scouting reports?

Zoltar is the greatest thing to happen to St. Mark's Place since ______________?

[Submitted by an EVG reader, Zoltar fan]

Zoltar, the all wise and knowing fortune teller, arrived at Gem Spa on St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue on Sept. 23. Since then, it's all everyone a few people can talk about.

Have you been by?

Don't get too close.



That's the one thing. Get too close to Zoltar and he starts hitting you up. By the time I got to Gem Spa on this day, five people along here had already asked me for change, cigarettes or directions to Little Italy.

A few things to make your Zoltar Experience more pleasant.

1) Zoltar only accepts $1 bills. So no quarters or $2 bills in the well-marked $1 slot.

2) Despite the sign, the ATM is not inside Zoltar's box.

Rockit Scientist Records to become a bubble tea shop on St. Mark's Place

John Kioussis, the owner of Rockit Scientist Records, which closed on St. Mark's Place in the spring, passed along word of the new tenant: A bubble tea shop. Uh-huh. Seems about right these days.

"Thank you NY real estate," he said on Facebook.

Jeremiah Moss first reported on Rockit's departure. Kioussis told Jeremiah, "my lease is ending and i don't want to renew at the current rate, i asked for a rent reduction and was turned down. While business wasn't great, it just isn't worth paying $8500 a month."

Looking at the 2 Bros. fire damage

Things were pretty quiet on St. Mark's Place this morning (save for the group of crusties camped out adjacent to the 7-Eleven) ... Not much sign of damage from last night's fire in the apartment above Little Tokyo and 2 Bros. Pizza.

Little Tokyo was sealed up, but the 2 Bros. gate was open (this is the one that sells the $1.50 "supreme slice") ...

Workers at the scene wouldn't answer any questions, such as what the extent of the damage was or when they might be able to reopen.

Per an EVG and witness to the fire: "The place next door to 2 Bros, Little Tokyo, is devastated; a wall was torn out and everything up against it smashed or thrown onto the sidewalk. Those poor guys are going to have a hell of a cleanup..."

More about the fire on St. Mark's Place tonight

Multiple readers passed along information about the fire that broke out tonight on St. Mark's Place above 2 Bros. Pizza just west of Second Avenue...

[Top photos via EVG reader John]

Per another reader who took all the photos below...

"Many fire trucks, the street is blocked off. Firefighters broke through windows on the apartment above the pizza shop. The fire started around 5:45 pm ... No visible damage to the exterior of the restaurant or the apartment above, other than the now-smashed apartment windows."

So far we haven't heard about any injuries... and per our reader who sent the above shots:

"The place next door to 2 Bros, Little Tokyo, is devastated; a wall was torn out and everything up against it smashed or thrown onto the sidewalk. Those poor guys are going to have a hell of a cleanup..."

And via Facebook...

Incoming St. Mark's Place wine and liquor store to feature realistic Dirty Old New York touches

Heh. Previously.

St. Mark's Place soon to welcome new most popular business

Spotted last week between Second Avenue and Third Avenue.

[Bottom two photos via Bobby Williams]

The Eat Me flower box on St. Mark's Place doesn't look so good

[Photo by Bobby Williams]

Hmm, well, something has apparently taken a bite of out one of the two Eat Me Flower Boxes along St. Mark's Place here between Avenue A and First Avenue ... Perhaps it's from all the attention that the fake human kidney received ... either way, Jim Power has another project on his hands...